From: Jasper
Date: 10/20/03
Time: 6:07:36 PM
Remote Name: 68.77.161.88
Charlie,
First let me thank you for switching boards. I was afraid that if I did it nobody would follow.
Some of the things you mentioned about the alleged rape and the alleged rape victim stuck me as being enough to dismiss the charges against Bryant before the case came to trial. Perhaps something about the evidence we don’t know accounts for the authorities’ decision to pursue the prosecution. Right now, it doesn’t look that way. It looks like the prosecutors are afraid of appearing to be soft on an accused rapist because he is a popular sports figure as they were accused in the O.J. case.
If a woman checks into a hospital with a bullet in her back and a dozen witnesses to the shooting you know that the she is the victim. When a woman accuses a man of rape you don’t know whether she is the victim or he is.
I have serious doubts that Mike Tyson was guilty of rape and I was surprised that rape charges against other professional athletes in recent years were taken seriously until I put myself in the prosecutor’s shoes. In all other cases the accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty. In rape cases the protections given to the accuser shifts the practical burden of proof to the accused. There would have been no William Kennedy Smith rape trial if his name were William Schwartz. The evidence just wasn’t there.
If the public sees enough rape cases where the accused is shown to be the victim, real rape victims could be back where they were when defense attorneys could portray what happened to them as an act of sex they initiated by their own sexual behavior. The sexual and psychiatric backgrounds of the alleged victims should have no place in open court. However, police and prosecutors should investigate EVERYTHING that could bear on the accusation to learn who the victim is. If they don’t do their homework or if they try to surprises key parts of it for the sake of appearing to be tough on rape, the only place it can come out for the sake of justice is in open court. –Jasper